Hi everyone, For sometime now, my dcc station keep shutting off after a 30-45 minutes of running time. Because of the heat of the station I suspect an overcharged resulting of insufficient power... so what do you suggest? I run 4 to 7 trains (2 to 3 engines) simultaneously with approximately 10 other trains waiting their turns on the layout. - 2× LZV100 (1 master, 1 slave) - 7x Ldt RS-8 (56 block detection) - approx 45 switch controlled with cobalt ip switch motor or dcc concept Ads-sx solenoid switch controller. - I also have a separate transformer for the feedback modules (3 transformers in total) The whole thing is controlled with RRTC. So, I'm now thinking of adding a DR5033 3Amp booster from dijikeijs. Q1: From your point of view or experience, should one 3Amp booster be sufficient? Actually I have 2 power districts : left and right. The switch controllers take their current from the track bus. Q2: should I build a separate "switch bus" using this 3Amp booster as third district? All comments welcome. Thanks Seb from Switzerland Envoyé de mon SM-G970F en utilisant Tapatalk
What scale is your railroad? What has changed recently, before or when you started having these problems? Is it always the same LZV100 that shuts down? Master or slave? Which one powers the switches now? I'm not familiar with LZV100's. How old are they, and are they open to dust, etc. getting inside? Do they include a fan? A thick coating of dust acts like a thermal blanket, reducing the ability of the unit to cool itself. Taking 30-45 minutes to run until it shuts down does not seem like a gross over-current condition, but either a very marginal one, or the cooling is compromised, causing it to eventually overheat (e.g. due to dust, etc. accumulating on cooling surfaces.) I would look to see if something has compromised the unit's ability to cool itself, such as dirt/dust accumulation, less airflow, changed location/environment, etc. Another option to consider is if it is the main unit that shuts down, and it is running the most trains (the largest, busiest district,) I would try swapping the two (make the master power the smaller/less busy district instead). The one that is just a slave has less work to do than the one that is controlling everything and powering its own district.
You may also want to ensure that whatever booster/slave you use, is Railcom compatible. Even if you are not using it now, you may want to in the future.
It sounds to me like the LZV100s are slowly overheating. As BigJake mentions, make sure that it is being cooled adequately. For starters, you can test this out by aiming a fan at the LZV100s when you're running to see whether that makes a difference. A friend of mine mounted a PC cooling fan to blow air across the heatsinks on his Digitrax DCs100, and it worked a treat. Trains that are just "waiting their turns on the layout" will also be drawing current. A single stationary loco won't add much extra draw, but 10 trains (possibly 20-30 locos) can add an amp or more, especially if they are sound equipped. So you might consider using toggle switches to isolate them while they're not being used. Switch machine motors and anything else that doesn't need to be connected to the DCC system should be powered separately.
Guys , Thanks for your comments. LZV100 don't really have cooling system. I've already turned them so they sit on the smallest side giving more air to cool it. No CPU fan at the moment but it's another option I have to think about. On the other hand, I think I should really use a separate booster to power all the switches.. in fact the switch controllers need dcc current to get the command AND to get power (no separate inputs) Envoyé de mon SM-G970F en utilisant Tapatalk
If it is a current issue, it is just barely over-current (and thus takes quite a while to cause the shut down), and segregating the switches to their own booster could help. You might also see if, without any trains on the layout, and the switch decoders disconnected, if you have a high-resistance short on the rails somewhere. Depending on what kind of capacitors they used, dust accumulation, etc., the CS/booster may have developed a weak internal short that is dissipating heat and consuming power. How old are they?
BigJake, That's a good question! The central station is 10-12 years old and the booster is probably 18-20 yo. You're probably right with the age of components and a possible over consuming element on my layout. I also tried to keep the layout powered all the night just to see what happened... no real surprise... It would sometimes stop and some other times keep working... Thinking of tired components, I may have to check my reversing modules too... Seems like a long journey to solve this Take care Envoyé de mon SM-G970F en utilisant Tapatalk
When you say "powered all night" were trains running, or everything stopped? If the latter, that would tend to point to the master. But it's hard to know whether the unit running as "booster" is really acting as a command station slaved to the master, or just a dumb booster replicating the track output from the master. How are they linked together? Can you tell if it is the master or the booster that is shutting down? I would think if the booster is shutting down, only its trackage would be affected*, but if the master is shutting down, the whole layout would go dark. *unless the booster has a way of notifying the master it has shut down, which then causes the master to shut down too.
So, after a week of reflection.. I decided to modify the power voltage of master and booster... I moved from 13v I guess back to 16v. My first hour run test this morning went great... no overheating, no current cut... I did also changed a point motor that wasn't working well. I still have to double check but it looks like I have solved at least one issue. Envoyé de mon SM-G970F en utilisant Tapatalk
